An American Family History

The Southampton Baptist Church

The Southampton Baptist Church is the oldest Baptist Church in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Its school was one of the earliest in Bucks County and gave a classical education to young men

From 1691 until 1730, members met for worship in the homes of members until John Morris gave land for the meetinghouse which was built in 1731. The Church was rebuilt in 1882 and enlarged to its present form in 1814.

The Southampton Baptist Church Cemetery, which adjoins the Church, is the resting place of 24 Revolutionary War soldiers, 6 veterans of the French and Indian Wars.

Bucks County, Pennsylvania is one of three original Pennsylvania Counties and was formed in 1682. Originally it was a large territory that included all of what would later be Berks, Northampton, and Lehigh.

The History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time, by William Watts Hart Davis, published by Democrat Book and Job Office Print, 1876

There are three churches in this township, the Southampton Baptist church, the Davisville Baptist church, and the Low Dutch Reformed. The first named stands on the Middle road half a mile below Springville; was founded in 1731, and was the seventh in the province.

It had its origin in the small band of Keithian Friends which commenced their meetings at the house of John Swift forty years before. The first pastor was the Reverend John Potts, since whose time nine others have ministered at its desk.ii Several generations of the inhabitants of the surrounding country lie buried in its grave yard. In the rear of the church is the grave of John Watts, one of the preachers to the Keithian band, on whose tombstone is the following quaint inscription:

Intered here I be
O that you could now see,
How unto Jesus for to flee
Not in sin still to In'.
Warning in time pray take
And peace by Jesus make
Then at the last when yon awake
Sure on his right hand yon'l partake.

The New England Meetinghouse was the only municipal building in a town. Both worship and civil meetings were held there. It was customary for men and women to sit separately and the town chose a committee once a year to assign seats according to what was paid, age, and dignity.